


Mirror Image

by 852_Prospect_Archivist



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Humor, M/M, challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-10
Updated: 2013-05-10
Packaged: 2017-12-11 06:46:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/795049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/852_Prospect_Archivist/pseuds/852_Prospect_Archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim tells a little white lie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mirror Image

## Mirror Image

by silvina

Standard Disclaimer. It's not like I don't have enough story ideas running around, right? And what happens? I get to a fork in the road and decide to send half of my brain cell (notice the singular) each way. Let me know what you think. Please send comments, questions, compliments, and otters to sdelcul@yahoo.com.

Choose your own adventure.

* * *

"What do you mean, I can't see him?" 

"I'm sorry, Mr. . . ." 

"Ellison. Detective Ellison." That always got him in to see Blair. 

It didn't faze the old battle-ax one bit. 

"He's my partner." 

Nurse-- he checked her name tag --Two Axes was certainly surprised. "That young man is a cop?" 

"Well, no. Not exactly. But he is an official observer and he is my partner." 

"Ah. Well, then I'm sorry, detective, but I can't let you in." 

Dirty, exhausted, and half out of his mind with guilt, Jim blurted out his most secret dream. "He's my domestic partner." 

Maybe she had a heart after all. "Ohhhh. Why didn't you just say so? His room is right this way. He's still in recovery, but they'll be bringing him down in a few minutes. He's going to be fine. Don't you worry about a thing." 

He didn't know whether to kiss her or run outside and scream until he couldn't talk but didn't have a huge knot in his stomach, knowing that what he'd just done was wrong on so many levels-- except one. It wasn't fair to Blair, it wasn't even fair to Nurse Two Axes. He was taking advantage of her open-minded caring. But it was true in his heart, and it would get him in to see Blair. That was all that mattered now. Blair was okay. 

* * *

He had been sitting there for one hour and thirty-seven minutes before he could sense Blair beginning to wake up. His heart rate was faster, his breathing pattern changed, and he was just noisier somehow. It was a good kind of noise, though, and he was glad of it. 

"Oghg. Am I dead?" Blair groaned. 

Jim gave him a sip of water to swirl in his mouth. "Nah. Not this time, Chief." 

"Hell?" 

"Just the hospital. How do you feel?" 

"Lousy. What'd you expect?" 

But he was alive. Alive, awake, and grinning like a sailor on the *fifth*day of a three-day pass. "Moody." He was grinning back helplessly. 

"You look awful." 

"You're hurting my feelings here, Chief." 

"Go wash up. Then you can sit in the chair to your heart's content without scaring away my lovely nurses." 

Oh. "Uh, about that, Chief. Listen, I-" 

"Go. I'm going back to sleep. You may hover over me after I take a quick two-month nap." And he was asleep again. 

Jim was a whipped man. He knew it. Blair knew it. Most of Major Crimes knew it. He did what he was told. 

Nurse Two Axes came in to check on Blair while he was in the bathroom.. "Good. I'm glad you're still here." 

Jim grinned. He was really starting to like this woman. Either that, or he was just glad she was on his side--for a Native American woman she was very big. Pulling the chair close to the bed, he sat down, fully prepared to wait. 

With one last check of the IV, she patted Blair on the head and stood next to Jim. Shyly, she pulled something out of her pocket. "This is my domestic partner, Linda. I know how I'd feel if she was ever hospitalized." 

He felt so bad for lying to her and Blair now. 

Two months turned into several hours before Blair woke up the second time. 

* * *

\----------Choose your own adventure------------ Who tells Blair?  
a) Jim [Scene I]  
b) Not Jim [Scene II] 

* * *

Scene I --Lao Tzu--"Naming is the origin of all particular things." 

Two months turned into several hours before Blair woke up the second time. 

"Still dead?" Jim leaned over Blair, moving closer to him unconsciously. 

Blair tried to speak, but interrupted himself with a yawn bigger than his head. He exhaled directly into Jim's face. "Oh man. Sorry 'bout that." 

"It's all right. Might want to try a new mouthwash, though, that one's a little faded," He grinned quickly, worries forgotten for a moment. 

"Eh, what can I say?" 

His smile soothed Jim's nerves as he worked up the nerve to tell Blair what had happened. After all, it was all a simple misunderstanding, right? He'd said what he needed to in order to be with Blair. He'd understand, wouldn't he? 

"Sit, man, you look like you're going to fall over. What happened?" 

Army Ranger. Police detective. Right, right. "There's something you need to know." 

"What? Did the doctor tell you something? Come on, man. You gotta tell me what they told you." Pulse racing, Blair was jumping to entirely wrong conclusions. 

"Down, Sandburg. You're fine. It's nothing like that." 

"Okay." He took a moment to relax again. "So what's going on?" 

"I had to mislead your nurse to get in here." 

"So? You've done that before. So've I." 

"It's what I told her that might get you upset." 

"An obfuscation's an obfuscation. What'd you tell her?" 

"I told her you were my partner." 

"I am. Don't make me pull teeth here, man." Blair warned. "I'm too exhausted to play." 

"My _partner_ partner." 

He had to smile as Blair sputtered for a full minute. "Oh. Ok. So?" 

"So? You're not upset?" 

"Why would I be upset? There's nothing wrong with being bi. I am." 

"You're bi? Since when?" 

"Truth?" 

Something in the way Blair asked made him pause. It couldn't be. . . . ."Yeah. Truth." 

"Since I realized you were attracted to me, and that I was attracted to you." 

Blair was watching him carefully and he stared into deep blue eyes that held him in their grip. "Say that again." 

"Since I realized you were--" 

"Not that part." He cut him off. 

"Why?" Suspicion colored Blair's voice and drew Jim's attention to what Blair hadn't said. 

"So before that you were straight?" 

Blair laughed, clear and sweet. "Geez, Jim. You make me sound like I'm bipolar or something: most recent episode heterosexual." 

"I'm glad you find this all so amusing, but how about an explanation for those of us who didn't minor in psychology?" He growled. 

"Ok, look. When you're diagnosing someone with an affective disorder, like bipolar I or II, if possible you also include their most recent or current episode. Like manic or depressive." 

"That's not funny." 

"Guess you had to be there. But that's my point. Whatever our relationship is, it is. Naming is the origin of all particular things. It doesn't matter if we call ourselves gay, bi, or straight. If we love each other that's all that matters." 

"Do we love each other?" 

"I hope so. What do you think?" 

Jim leaned in close again, closer than he had ever been, close enough that he his lips hovered right over Blair's, feeling the warm breath against his face as Blair waited. "I think . . . that it's going to be a long wait until you get out of this bed . . . and that you're never getting out of mine." 

Then he gave in to both their wants, and they were kissing. 

The sound of a throat clearing made him pull away, but he didn't look away. "Simon, could you wait outside for a few more minutes?" he inquired calmly. 

"Sure, Jim." Simon replied, barely able to talk through his grin. "Sure." 

* * *

Scene II 

Two months turned into several hours before Blair woke up the second time. 

"Feeling better, Sandburg?" 

"Yeah. Can you go find my doctor?" 

"Sure. Don't go anywhere." 

"I promise." 

Jim was smiling as he went off to find Dr. Sandy. 

* * *

The first person he found wasn't Dr. Sandy, but Simon. 

"They're taking this not giving out information thing seriously these days. I almost had to arrest the receptionist to find out what floor you two were on." 

"I know. I had to tell them Blair and I were partners before they'd let me in to see him." 

"Why in the world aren't you his next of kin?" 

"Well, when he first filled out all the paperwork we didn't know each other all that well and he put Naomi down. Then after he moved in and everything, it wasn't like I wouldn't already know, so it never really occurred to us." It didn't occur to him that Simon could take what he was saying the wrong way. 

Dr. Sandy was with another patient, but Nurse Two Axes promised to send her in as soon as possible. 

* * *

"Hey, kid. How do you feel?" 

"I'm fine, Simon. Where's the doc?" 

"She'll be right in, Blair." Jim answered. 

"Speak of the devil." Simon and Jim moved out of the way as Dr. Sandy walked in. 

"I'm disappointed in you, Blair. What did I tell you the last time you were in here?" 

"That you didn't want to see me again. But it's not my fault!" 

"Sure it wasn't. That's what you say every time you're in here, Blair. You'll have to stay a few more hours for observation, but you can go home tomorrow morning. Just drop by next week for a checkup to make sure everything's healing okay." 

"Sure, Doc." 

"Thanks, Doc." 

"You're welcome. Don't let me see you again 'till spring." 

Blair grinned at her. "Promise. Bye, doc." 

"Later, boys." 

* * *

"She's right, you know. You two are enough to give someone a headache." 

"It's not like it's intentional, man." Blair appeared ready to cheerfully argue the point and defend both their honors, but Jim had to visit the men's room. 

"I'll be right back." 

He wasn't listening in on Simon and Blair while he was in the bathroom, or he would have heard Simon offer Blair his congratulations. 

"You're congratulating me for tripping over a dog and falling down some stairs?" 

"Nah, although . . . I'm congratulating you and Jim." 

"For what?" 

"Admitting that you love each other. There's a pool down at the station on when you'd get around to it." 

"There's a what? Simon listen, you gotta tell them to stop. Jim isn't like that. He's not going to like -" 

He wasn't listening, but some part of him always monitored his guide's heart rate, and when it flew through the ceiling, he was back in the room faster than a speeding bullet. 

"What's going on here?" 

Simon stared at him. "I could ask you the same question here, Detective." 

"Look, Simon, I had to tell them something. They wouldn't let me in otherwise." 

"You mean you don't love him?" Simon pointed to Blair, who almost cowered back as they both turned to look at him. 

Then Simon turned his gaze to Jim, and it was easy to see why he'd been taken off the streets. Simon Banks could still make a man want to pee in his pants. 

Looking back and forth from Simon's stern face to Blair's, he couldn't lie. "I do love you, Chief. Please don't --" 

"Simon?" 

"Yes, Blair?" 

"Could you give me a few minutes alone with him?" 

They were talking about him like he wasn't in the room. Jim was actually glad that they were, but this line of conversation would leave him alone to face Blair, the only person scarier at this moment then facing Simon. 

"Sure, kid. I'll be right outside if you want me to hit him." 

Gulp. 

"As much as I'd enjoy seeing that right now, I don't think it would be very productive." 

Oh, dear. 

"True. But it sure would be fun." 

"Thanks, Simon." 

* * *

The door closed, and he was alone with Blair. 

"Come here, Jim." 

He took one teeny step forward. 

"Closer." 

Another small step. 

"I'm not going to hurt you." 

Two steps closer. 

"I love you, too." 

* * *

End Mirror Image by silvina: sdelcul@yahoo.com

Author and story notes above.

  
Disclaimer: _The Sentinel_ is owned etc. by Pet Fly, Inc. These pages and the stories on them are not meant to infringe on, nor are they endorsed by, Pet Fly, Inc. and Paramount. 


End file.
